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Monday, April 14, 2014

Easter Advent Calendar

Last Christmas I made an awesome advent calendar with some girlfriends (I will do a post on it in the fall). It was on a wood plaque and had tag-board numbers with pictures of Christ's life and corresponding scriptures.

Last weekend I had a small epiphany: I needed to do an Easter advent calendar! I lay in bed on Saturday morning working it out in my mind. I wanted it to go through the events of the last week of Christ's life and end with the Resurrection.

So, I got out of bed and got to work.

Here's what I did:

To prepare:

1. I started by downloading pictures depicting Jesus Christ's last week on lds.org. I also added corresponding scriptures to the front of each picture.

2. I made number images on Gimp (a Photoshop-like program) to the size of the pictures, matching the numbers to the order of the events. I printed out the pictures and the numbers.

3. You will also need a wood board (mine was 12" x 24"), paint, Mod-podge, small 1" pin-nails, a strong hole-punch, and tag-board (available at scrapbooking stores).

To assemble:

1. Sand and paint your wood board. I added some polka-dots and distressing to mine.
2. Mount the numbers on the chip board with a thin layer of mod-podge and cut out each one.
3. Print out the Jesus pics and cut those out and mount them on the back of the number they fit on.

4. Mod-podge over the front and back of the chip board pieces. I did 2 coats on each side--one horizontally and one vertically to give it a canvas-look.

5. Punch 2 holes in the top corners of each chip board piece (1 in each top corner).

6. Arrange the pieces on the painted boards leaving room at the side or top for a heading and a 1/2 inch or so on the sides and bottom. Mark the spots of the holes you punched.

7. Hammer the nails into the marked spots, leaving enough nail sticking out for hanging, but in enough so they are firmly in place.

8. A friend with a Silohuette machine made the heading for me. (Thanks Ali!!)

When it is complete, you can turn over a number each day beginning on either Palm Sunday or the Monday before Easter and read the scriptures together as a family. By Easter Sunday, you will have read about all the main events of Jesus' last week in mortality.

Here is a close-up of the pictures and scriptures. These images are all ok to use (copyright-wise).

Here is the board before distressing. It had too much of a baby nursery feel, so I gave it a beating.

Here is close-up of some of the distressing I did. I just sanded it, hit it with a hammer, and rubbed it on the edges and rough areas with some stain.